Barclays cuts 250 jobs in India

Mumbai: British lender Barclays has cut 250 jobs in India, while another 50 to 55 staff have been reassigned or resigned from the bank in recent weeks, a corporate spokesman said on Thursday.

The job cuts, a large number of them in the collections team, follow two rounds of layoffs at the bank last year totalling about 240 people, said the spokesman, who declined to be identified by name.

After the job losses Barclays still employs more than 5,000 people in India across its businesses including retail, corporate and investment banking, and its technology centre, the bank said in a statement.

The bank said it was increasing its focus on corporate and investment banking, wealth management, and serving the fast-growing so-called mass affluent segment in India.

Barclays said earlier this year it would target larger local companies and the local operations of multinationals in India, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, scaling back retail operations in those countries.